The Nicest Places in Amer­ica

A falafel shop that re­de­fines the Amer­i­can dream, a city made strong by tragedy, and eight more in­spir­ing ex­em­plars of ci­vil­ity and kind­ness.

We of­ten talk to­day about di­vi­sion in this coun­try, but that is clearly not the whole story. The car­ing and kind­ness demon­strated in this year’s Nicest Places in Amer­ica nom­i­na­tions— al­most 500 of them—show how in­nate it is for Amer­i­cans to help one an­other. Their sto­ries are seeds of good­ness to plant around the coun­try. As for the win­ning place—well, if your faith has been wa­ver­ing, it will be re­stored. Be­ing a judge in the Reader’s Di­gest Nicest Places search is my per­sonal way of say­ing hope ex­ists all around us. Feel the pure joy of this year’s ten fi­nal­ists.